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The Webbys

It’s that time of year again! March Madness is over, baseball season is off and running, the Stanley Cup Quarterfinals are about to have a dramatic game seven, and the Webby Awards are upon us!

The Webby Awards are what they sound like: web awards. They highlight some of the best advertising campaigns, videos, apps, etc., that the internet has to offer. There are two awards in each of the four categories: Websites, Interactive Advertising & Media, Online Film &Video, and Mobile & Apps. The Webby Award is decided by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and the Webby People’s Voice Award is determined by popular vote.

Marketing, advertising, and internet nerds (like myself) check out the Webbys every year to find the best the web has to offer. Take a look at the nominees!:

Even if all you do is browse, try to take some time to appreciate all of the work that went into each of these campaigns. I liked pretty much everything I saw, but here are several of my favorite campaigns for the year:

All of these are great campaigns that make people look a bit more closely at different issues. You can follow a bear in Canada, view the outrage of the Fahrenheit 451 idea of book burning, and attempt to live on less than one thousand dollars for a month. They all (including the other two Activism nominees Counterspill and The Breathe Project) make you look at their focus issues in a new way. Prepare to have your mind blown!

Intel and Toshiba partnered up for this one to bring you the story of Christina (played by Emmy Rossum), a young woman who has been abducted and trapped in a small room with only a 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor-powered Toshiba Satellite® P775 series laptop and an untraceable Internet connection. The campaign put out eight webisodes that showed Christina trying to figure out where she was and why. She used social media to engage viewers in the process, asking for their help. Cool, kind of creepy, and a totally new way to connect with consumers and get traction with an age group that doesn’t tend to get excited about anything but Macs.

Who doesn’t love the Old Spice guy? I can’t imagine that anyone in my age group hasn’t heard of or fallen in love with the original Old Spice guy, Isaiah Mustafa. The Mano a Mano in el Bano started as a dual challenge from Fabio in an attempt to wipe out Mustafa and become the new Old Spice guy. In a series of videos back and forth they swap jabs, and eventually meet for combat (en el Bano of course). Who wins? You’ll have to watch to find out!

These and dozens of others are all on the Webby website. Take a look: laugh, cry, learn, enjoy, and be a part of the Oscars of the Internet! Voting closes April 26, so make sure to check it out soon!